STEPs to Peace is a proceedings of the Southern Thailand Empowerment and Participation (STEP) Project Symposium: STEPs to Peace organized by the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS), Prince of Songkla University (PSU) on 20 August at the International Convention Centre in Hat Yai District of Sonkhla.

The symposium brought together 250 participants including UNDP, government officials, local authorities, academia, practitioners, civil society members and local peace networks to review the project’s overall impact in the southern border provinces. The session provided participants with the opportunity to identify strategic directions for future peace building and development programming built on the foundation of the STEP project to ensure social cohesion and sustainability of the development in the southern border provinces.

The participants through the focused area discussions assessed and evaluated the results and impacts achieved by the STEP project from January 2010 to July 2013 to determine whether the needs of people in the southern border provinces were addressed/fulfilled. The symposium also opened a space to share innovative/pilot activities and lessons learned obtained from the implementation of STEP project to enable knowledge integration and cooperation of all stakeholders.